Less than a week after the end of the season, managerial vacancies erupted. Five managers have been fired. The Florida Marlins have already replaced Joe Girardi with Fredi Gonzalez. That leaves openings in Chicago (Dusty Baker), San Francisco (Felipe Alou), Washington (Frank Robinson) and Texas (Buck Showalter).

The Cubs, the Giants and the Nationals fired minority managers. Are they prepared to hire another one? Willie Randolph of the Mets, Ozzie Guill?of the Chicago White Sox and Gonzalez, a Cuban native, are the only minority managers.

''I'd like to have a job where I'm on the same page as the general manager,'' said the 57-year-old Baylor, who lives only two hours from the Rangers' home. ''There's no reason why you can't be on the same page. The goal should be to work for the organization and improve the organization. Black guys and white guys should be able to work together.''

Baylor has managed two teams, the Colorado Rockies from 1993 through 1998 and the Cubs from 2000 to midseason 2002. When the Rockies were only 3 years old, he directed them to the playoffs as the National League wild card, and he was named National League manager of the year. But then the Rockies finished third, third and fourth in the N.L. West, and he was fired.

A couple of years later, Jerry McMorris, the Rockies' managing partner at the time, acknowledged that the team had made a mistake by dismissing Baylor. In the eight seasons since his dismissal, the Rockies have finished in fourth or fifth place every year.

When Baylor moved on to the Cubs, they finished in last place his first season, then improved by 23 victories and finished in third place, five games short of tying for first, but they won the same number of games (88) as the N.L. East champion, Atlanta. The Cubs, however, started poorly in Baylor's third season, and he was fired with a 34-49 record that put the Cubs in fifth place.

Baker was hired the next year to replace Baylor, and the Cubs won the division title. They backslid in each subsequent season, finishing third, fourth and this season, sixth.

In other words, the team that fired Baylor haven't exactly enjoyed raging success since.

Baylor last worked in baseball in 2005 as the hitting coach of the Seattle Mariners. He has also served as a coach with Milwaukee, Atlanta, St. Louis and the Mets. He interviewed for the Philadelphia job two years ago, but it went to Charlie Manuel.

''I had an opportunity, I thought, to be Frank Robinson's bench coach this year,'' Baylor said, ''but it didn't happen. I don't know why.''

Three years ago, Baylor suffered from multiple myeloma, or cancer of the blood plasma cells, but he underwent a stem cell transplant and is completely healthy.

''The past year, I traveled around the country with Eric Davis for cancer awareness,'' he said. ''We went to some ballparks and I saw some old friends.''

Now he will wait for calls from clubs seeking a manager. If someone wants to hire him as a coach, he will consider that job, too.

It was mentioned to Baylor that he is competing with his friend, Baker, for a job. ''I'm in competition with a lot of guys,'' he said.

Fire Manager, Win Series

This concept may be difficult to comprehend from this distance, and even the team it involves would most likely be skeptical. But the Texas Rangers will win the World Series next year.

This is not based on the kind of reasoning that pegged the Chicago Cubs a year in advance as the winner of this year's World Series. In that one, the Cubs (1908) were going to follow the Boston Red Sox (1918 to 2004) and the Chicago White Sox (1917 to 2005) as teams that won the World Series after many decades of not winning it.

No, there is a much more solid basis for saying the Rangers will win a year from now. They ensured that development by firing their manager, Buck Showalter, last week.

In 1995, the Yankees fired Showalter (he has maintained he quit). The next year they won the World Series. In 2000, the Arizona Diamondbacks fired Showalter, the only manager they had had. The next year, they won the World Series.

Teams should be lining up to hire Showalter as their next manager so they can fire him and win the World Series.

2 Homers in Last 20 Games

With slightly more than three weeks left in the season, Ryan Howard, Philadelphia's rookie sensation, seemed a cinch to become the sixth player in history to reach the 60-homer plateau.

But the season is over, and Howard doesn't have 60 home runs. The final numbers show that Howard hit 58 home runs, tying the 10th-highest season total. What happened to 60?

After he slugged 24 home runs in a 42-game stretch from July 28 through Sept. 8 and raising his total to an eye-opening 56, Howard hit only 2 home runs in his last 20 games.

In that 42-game period, Howard went no more than three consecutive games without hitting a homer. In the 20-game stretch, though, he had a drought of seven games between Nos. 56 and 57 and hit no home runs in his last eight games.

The slowdown was not the result of a hitting slump. In that same 20-game stretch, he batted .328 and raised his season average to .313 from .311. The biggest difference was probably the way he was pitched. He was walked 27 times in the last 20 games, compared with the 17 walks he received in his previous 20 games.

Dismissal With Honors

Frank Robinson's dismissal as manager of the Washington Nationals was the most bizarre firing in memory. On the day the Nationals fired him, they also honored him. The highlight of the ceremony before the Nationals' final game was a lengthy farewell speech by Robinson.

''No matter what people think, I'm not retiring,'' the 71-year-old Robinson said in his valedictory. He acknowledged, ''I'm past my time for managing,'' but added, ''There's a lot I want to accomplish for those who come after me. I'm looking for people who are qualified for skilled positions in other organizations in baseball. I have a lot of work to do.''

He was talking about minority hiring, about which he has long been outspoken. ''I've always tried to give back,'' he said. ''I've always tried to help people in baseball; I'm going to continue to do that.''

Robinson played and managed more than 5,000 games in his 51-year career. He said he had no regrets, didn't feel cheated that he retired as a player shy of 3,000 hits (2,943) and 600 home runs (586), and got the chance he asked for.

''I've never done anything harder than what I have to do now, that's to say goodbye,'' he concluded.

A woman in the stands held up a sign: ''Here's to you Mr. Robinson.''

The Mets surrounded Robinson, shook his hand, embraced him. Then they went out and hit him with the 1,176th loss of his career.

Photo: Don Baylor last worked in baseball in 2005 as the hitting coach of the Mariners. This season was the first in four decades that he was jobless. (Photo by Elaine Thompson/Associated Press)

Correction: October 12, 2006, Thursday
The On Baseball column on Sunday referred incorrectly to the major league career of Philadelphia's Ryan Howard, who hit 58 home runs to tie the 10th-highest season total. He was a rookie in 2005, not this year.